


One Way or Another

by mltrefry



Series: Turning Page [2]
Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: But there's nothing explicit, Edward Cullen is a creeper, F/M, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Not an Edward Friendly fic, Stalking, and really obsessive, darkish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 20:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30010317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mltrefry/pseuds/mltrefry
Summary: It's been fifty years, and Edward Cullen still can't let go.
Relationships: Aro/Bella Swan
Series: Turning Page [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2207604
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	One Way or Another

**Author's Note:**

> This was something I wrote a while ago but originally went "Nope, too creepy" and left it alone. But I sorta like it, and I wanted to give a small bit of insight to what was happening in the future after the end of Turning Page.

Fifty years for a human crawled on. Many would say it passed by in a blink when they looked back on bygone years, but the reality is they experienced every day, month, year in a way that they can savor their time. Past hurts and losses dull in that time. The sharp sting of loss becomes more tolerable.

For an immortal, fifty years was nothing. 

Edward still mourned his parental figures, still felt sometimes as though he needed to go to school and put on an appearance of being seventeen and only seventeen. He still found it hard to step outside on a sunny day despite the castle’s high walls, and he still tried to encourage Bella to go on an entirely animal blood diet.

And he still found it hard to see her obnoxiously in love with Aro of the Volturi.

They were not obnoxious in an obvious way. To many, they appeared relatively chaste. The most physical affection most anyone ever witness between them was perhaps a kiss on the cheek or the hand—fingers linked in the throne room during court. Arms entwined while walking through the castle or the garden together. 

But there was nothing chaste about them, not to someone who knew, who could see past the appearance of a proper king and queen.

Edward had seen moments within Aro’s mind during those times when Bella either didn’t or couldn’t wrap her shield around him. Stolen bits of memory made it impossible for Edward not to see how Aro looked to Bella as though she were Aphrodite. How he was often nothing more than a man on his knees, a supplicant before a goddess. His ancientness meant nothing in the face of his love for the vampire who hadn’t even reached her first century. 

And while he could never see into her mind, Edward had watched Bella from the corner of his eye often enough to know how Bella let her gaze linger on her mate as though she’d never been in love with anyone else ever in her entire existence. As though Aro’s was the only male form she had ever seen.

And she never looked at him like that. Bella had looked at Edward once like he hung the stars, as though he were a god. He hadn’t realized it until the day she met Aro, and those looks had no longer been given to him. 

They were given to no one, now, hadn’t even before Bella was changed. It was as though meeting Aro had unlocked a part of her that knew she would (reluctantly) become a ruler of the vampire race. That no one was a god of any sort, and no one had power over her. He would never confess to anyone that it was entirely possible that Bella had been under a thrall and not as desperately in love with him as he was with her. That finding her mate had overridden anything being his singer had done.

Her mate. He was told by Aro that when she changed, he would know that she wasn’t his, but that hadn’t been entirely true. While he understood now that there was a moment, a connection that snapped into place when two mates met and locked eyes for the first time (or second post-change if one had been human), he hadn’t found his feelings for Bella dimmed when he saw her as a vampire for the first time. If anything, it made things worse. Because there she was, immortal like him, the most beautiful monster he had ever seen. 

And she looked at him as though he were nothing.

She looked at Aro like he was everything.

He tried to find someone else; he really had. He did spend those months traveling around Europe, meeting people and hoping. He may not have tried hard, but he made an effort. 

It was the way Bella had smiled at Aro when he joined them in the garden that day, the way he smiled at her. Edward would later learn that those smiles were not the subtle signs of affection he may have thought, but the sheer joy and love that was always there. Those smiles held the same weight whether exchanged in the throne room or within the confines of their rooms while steam from a scalding bath would fog windows.

That one had been a very fleeting thought from earlier in the day that didn’t last. Bella having returned to Forks on her own for a time and Aro having clearly missed her enough to let his mind wander a little too far while they and their co-rulers were holding court. He’d at least given Edward an apologetic glance before leaving the throne room, but the image stayed.

It burned and seared, branding itself forever in Edward’s memory. 

Alone, he could twist it to be something very different. Put himself in Aro’s place and imagined Bella with golden eyes. Never mind that her irises had never gone any brighter than a copper color before they would revert back to red. He believed she would easily adapt to his diet had she been his mate. His wife. And they wouldn’t live in a castle in Italy but one of the small cottages that dotted the property around the Cullen land in Forks.

He’d warped the memory so much he could smell the citrus-scented steam mixed with the floral of Bella’s venom, feel the contradictory temperature of her skin and the water against himself. Edward might have believed it actually happened if it wasn’t for the fact that he couldn’t quite imagine more than simply being there with her. If he tried to imagine the way Bella had looked at him once, she became a human version of herself. Still golden-eyed, but there was always something missing that made her distinctly un-vampiric.

Edward wasn’t stupid. He knew his obsession levels were getting dangerously high, as they had periodically over the last five decades. Usually he would go off, travel for a bit, see those of his family that were now scattered about. But Bella’s departure was unexpected, and while she hadn’t left long ago, it was just at the time when Edward knew he would need to get away.

He thought it wouldn’t be so bad without Bella around, but being in their home made him miss her more than if he had been the one to go. Maybe it was because she wasn’t around to shield everyone’s thoughts, perhaps it was simply that empty throne between him and Aro. Edward didn’t know, nor did he care to figure it out. 

It wouldn’t matter either way.

It was nighttime in Italy, the sky clear enough for him to see the stars dotting the sky above his head, much like a night some fifty years ago when he took Bella hunting in the woods. When he watched her hunt a bear na-

No. That had been a memory of Aro’s. One Edward superimposed himself into. 

No, the actual night he was thinking of had been when she was home for Charlie’s wedding, and she had asked him to teach her to hunt animals. She was glorious. She was a natural. He had wanted to take her hand, kiss her, show her that he still loved her. Sometimes in his mind, he imagined what would happen if he attempted it. He knew it likely wasn’t anywhere near where reality would have led, but it was a nice thought.

One he tried to push from his mind now as he tasted the city air around him, the scents of the garden below. He picked up Aro’s among the greenery, harder to pinpoint as it was so similar to the cypress trees, but there was a weird dusty note to it that gave it distinction.

He peered down, seeing his co-ruler examining the fountain, his eyes likely following the path of a fish that made its way around. He dressed in a suit, only a little different from what was in style fifty years before, still all in black, always with the crest around his neck.

How did he have Bella? How was this man, cruel and vicious and scarred the keeper of such a beautiful heart? Edward didn’t hate him like he used to, but he certainly hadn’t grown to like him either. There was mutual respect, but hardly anything more.

As Edward watched him, he noted Aro’s posture suddenly go straight, and the golden-eyed vampire thought himself caught watching. Then Aro smiled, turning toward the entrance from the castle, beaming. A second later, Bella was in his arms, and the two of them were happily laughing while he spun her around. Then they silenced themselves with a kiss, and it wasn’t unlike the one shared when they were reunited just before the Volturi reform. 

That kiss had been the second Edward had ever witnessed in person, this one…. Well, it wasn’t the first time he happened to be just within view of them when they thought themselves mostly alone and unobserved. It wouldn’t even be the thousandth one Edward reimagined for himself. But he wouldn’t this time. He couldn’t. He had to stop.

“I’m happy you’re back,  _ mia amata, _ ” Aro said after breaking the kiss, keeping Bella close, his forehead pressed to hers. Their eyes were closed, likely breathing one another in. 

“Me too,” Bella said, her hands resting on Aro’s shoulders, fingers weaving strands of his hair around her fingers. 

“How was it?” 

“Easier than I thought it would be,” Bella replied, and Edward hated that he had hoped she would say her return to Forks had wrecked her. “I stayed in the trees with Jake. It helps that Charlie told everyone I died in a crash, like, forty years ago, so it’s not like anyone expected me. Seth’s kid took Charlie’s flag. The service was short. I think.” She leaned back, frowning thoughtfully. “I’m sad he’s gone, but… he was getting uncomfortable even talking to me lately. I think he was stubborn, not wanting to accept I would never change, but…” Bella shrugged. 

“I had thought it would be difficult for you, given how much you love him,” Aro admitted, and Edward couldn’t help nodding in agreement.

“I think I mourned him long before the day came without fully realizing it. Accepting that I would have eternity without him in my life.” Then she stood taller, shoulders squared. “The tribe haven’t had any trouble. Though Jacob did say we may hear of a few nomads who somehow thought the law about being in that area of Washington was more of a suggestion than a punishable act.”

“I will have to see what we can find out. But let us not discuss matters of ruling. While I want my queen, I don’t wish for her to  _ be  _ a queen right now.” Aro said as he pulled her close again, kissing her rather more deeply than should be done in the garden.

And much as it hurt, Edward found he couldn’t look away. It was a strange sort of self-harm, seeing how reverently Aro’s touch was against Bella’s skin. How he was the one who could speak of love against her lips and would undoubtedly worship her with his body before the hour was out. 

Edward hated himself just a little for agreeing to this life, where he would always see his Bella in someone else’s arms. Someone who Edward would never believe deserving of the most magnificent vampire to grace the world. 

“I,” Bella said as she broke the kiss and stepped away from Aro, walking backward, clutching his hand and leading him, “want a bath. And to go to bed because I’m very tired.”

Aro laughed, crazed and deranged with a hint of delight, and grinned with all teeth. “I’m sure you’re exhausted from your travels,  _ mia amata _ . A few hours in bed should do, shouldn’t it?”

“I dunno,” Bella smirked, and Edward found a new vision to be burned and seared in his mind, ready to warp if he wanted to punish himself a little more. “I think I could use a full day. We don’t have anything tomorrow, do we?”

“If we do, I’m certain Benjamin, Edward, and Athena will get on well without us,” Aro said, closing that small distance between them before snatching Bella and disappearing inside. 

Her laugh still echoed in his brain, and Edward had to close his eyes and try to quiet his mind before he found himself imagining what it would be like to have brought that out of Bella himself.

There was a creak, and he realized he’d been so absorbed with watching the display below that he hadn’t heard the other vampire come up to the tower, their thoughts quiet.

“How much of that did you see?” He asked.

“Enough,” Athenodora’s reply came, and she was beside him in an instant. She stroked his hair soothingly. “It’s getting bad again, isn’t it?” She asked, and Edward nodded. She hummed in understanding. “But Bella’s home now; you can go.”

“I’m not sure it will help,” Edward confessed, opening his eyes and meeting Anthenodora’s. 

She smiled gently before leaning in and placing a lingering kiss on his lips.

“Perhaps a distraction before you go then.” She suggested, her hands falling to his shoulders. “I’m afraid I’m feeling a bit out of sorts myself.”

“And what will you do if I come back with a mate this time?” He asked as he took her by the waist, peering into her red eyes and feeling almost nothing.

Fondness. Affection. A little lust, but only because she taught Edward the one thing he’d denied himself for so very long. No, there was no love, not even a fraction of what he felt for Bella. And there was no love in those eyes for him, just the same fondness and affection and a dash of understanding.

“Then I will find someone else to amuse myself with when I need to,” Athenodora replied with just a hint of a smile curling her lips. “Now, come. We’ll go to my rooms, and you can work through what you need to with me. And once you’re finished, go. See your sisters and their mates, visit your cousins. Try and find a mate of your own. Aro will understand.”

Edward nodded, then kissed her again. Ignoring the voice that screamed that these were the wrong lips until they were silent. Touched the wrong colored hair and breathed the wrong floral scent until his mind was quiet. Then, he let Athenodora lead him inside and allowed her to chase away the hauntings of his own creations.

And when the sun rose, he left Volterra. At least for a while.


End file.
